1. Field of the Invention
The present principles relate generally to infant and child safety and development systems, and more particularly to the technical field of monitoring systems.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Being a parent involves numerous worries about the health and safety of one's infant, toddler or child, including, for example, determining whether a sleeping infant is breathing. Infant monitoring devices can help alleviate some of parent's fears in the face of such worries, but many of these existing monitoring devices do not provide enough or the correct type of data for the parent. Audio and video monitors are a popular monitoring solution, but they require the parent to be actively monitoring the data stream and to be able to recognize potential issues by themselves only given that data feed. Furthermore, pressure pads put under the infant's mattress can detect the orientation of the infant, which has been linked to several problems (such as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), but such devices can be fairly inaccurate, give off false positives, and are rendered useless if the baby move off the pad. One monitoring device currently found on the market does monitor motion of the infant, however it is bulky, prone to falling off, and has a very short battery life that frequently requires recharging. In addition to all of these shortcomings, such devices can cost upwards of several hundred dollars.
Presently there are no commercially available devices that provide detailed data on an infant, and thusly there are also no devices or services that can use such data to provide analytical data.